Animal Collective have begun work on their ninth studio album. The Technicolor indie tribe have written 15 new songs, which they plan to record in January.

"We're really excited about this record," Avey Tare told Madison.com (via Pitchfork). "We just finished another two weeks of writing sessions and put together five [more] new songs … It's been really fun jamming with those guys again."

Whereas 2009's Merriweather Post Pavilion was recorded in Mississippi, Animal Collective's forthcoming LP may be laid down in their hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. The band relocated there from New York almost a year ago, "hunkering down" with new material, Tare told the Baltimore Sun. "[The album's] informed more by being in a wooded setting, by the nature in Maryland," he said in July. At that time they had 10 songs written, described as "more immediate" than Merriweather Post Pavilion. It also marks the return of Deakin, an Animal Collective co-founder, who took a break from the band's last album.

Merriweather Post Pavilion has been Animal Collective's most successful release, reaching No 26 in the UK and No 13 in the US.